South Coast Rail filing offers new details on Fall River stop, ridership numbers

Tuesday

Feb 13, 2018 at 12:01 AMFeb 13, 2018 at 12:31 PM

Michael Holtzman Herald News Staff Reporter @MDHoltzman

FALL RIVER – Rail travelers from Fall River and New Bedford will save “approximately an hour” each day traveling to Boston when the Phase I Middleborough secondary route is completed by late 2022, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation said.

That comparison to auto travel, and an estimated 3,220 one-way trips daily by train in this first phase were among details of MassDOT’s announced filing of a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report, dated Jan. 31.

It includes new elements of analysis — including the Fall River Depot rail station — on the Middleborough/Lakeville line that would precede by years building a full route with electric trains to Stoughton.

The latter preferred route would cost $2.3 billion more and take eight years more to complete, said a press statement issued this week.

MassDOT’s filing Tuesday in a 597-page report to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office precedes upcoming discussions and hearings in the next few weeks, officials said.

“After more than three decades of lip service, we’re going to make commuter rail from Fall River and New Bedford a reality,” Transportation Secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack said echoing Baker's comments from his State of the State address.

“With the filing of the DSEIR and other documents, the day gets closer (to) when people will be able to have a one-seat ride on train between Boston and the South Coast,” she said.

Citing a transportation planning data analysis, MassDOT reported 21 percent of Fall River residents don’t have cars and 22 percent in New Bedford – making rail service more essential for that approximately one in five residents.

New aspects under the modified Middleborough route detailed in the supplemental report include building new stations in that town at Pilgrim Junction and another in East Taunton, as well as modifications to the stations in Fall River and Freetown, MassDOT said.

For Fall River, the proposed rail depot at Route 79/Davol Street, one mile north of downtown, submitted with the environmental impact statement and report last March, poses some logistical problems, MassDOT said.

A portion of that site was developed with a new medical office building that reduced parking capacity for projected expanded ridership, they said.

Instead, the modified supplemental report lists 220 parking spaces and a nearby lot and access platform. Buses would “stop on Davol Street, just outside of the station parking lot.”

Bus passengers would walk about 400 feet – a little over a football field – from the bus to the station, says a portion of the DSEIR that MassDOT officials referenced upon request.

Additionally the Battleship Cove station, which would be built near the Gates of the City, also remains part of the plan.

This would not be part of the Middleborough Phase I project when ridership would be lower, it said.

The new filing is a result of the secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs last May directing MassDOT to do additional analysis related to the new phasing Baker proposed.

In the comparison with rail line building duration and finances, MassDOT reported capital construction costs of Phase I at $935 million, while using the current Middleborough fleet, including diesel locomotives, and new bi-level coaches to accommodate the additional riders.

Of that $935 million expense, 85 percent is for the “southern triangle” from Cotley Junction in Taunton to Fall River and New Bedford, MassDOT said.

MassDOT spokeswoman Jacque Goddard said they estimate the ride from the latter two cities to Boston, without a need to change trains, at “approximately 90 minutes.”

That’s in the range of 15 or so minutes more than reported estimates for the full line to Stoughton through Taunton.

The report lists capital costs for the Stoughton line at $3.2 billion and service “no sooner than 2030,” compared with late 2022 for Phase I.

Figures released last summer when MassDOT introduced the Middleborough option were Phase 1 costing $1.1 billion after estimating the Stoughton costing increasing significantly to $3.3 billion.

The Phase I portion of the project would “build 56 percent of the rail miles needed for the full-build Stoughton electric alternative,” MassDOT noted.

The agency had awarded a 10-year South Coast Rail design contract to the joint venture team of VHB/HNTB. It prepared the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report.

Looking ahead, state officials recently distributed the DSEIR to 36 public libraries across the region, with briefings to local leaders and stakeholders upcoming. One with the private business community will be held on Feb. 21 at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, followed by a public meeting on March 6 at 6:30 p.m. at UMass Dartmouth’s Claire T. Carney Library.

The public is also encouraged to submit comments to the state energy and environmental affairs office.

Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com or call him at 508-676-2573.